The Tennessee Titans have a lot to prove before they can be taken seriously as a playoff contender again, but this team is going to be much better in 2026. While so much of the attention has been on the offense, the reason why fans should be sure of a better season this year is that the defense should be elite.
If you have time, go back and watch what Robert Saleh did with the San Francisco 49ers defense last year. If you do, you will hear how he has shifted his focus away from trying to limit yardage to focusing on limiting points, and that showed when the 49ers finished 13th-best in points per game allowed (21.8).
Saleh was able to do that with a defense that missed Nick Bosa for 14 games and Fred Werner for 11 games. That is huge because no one else on that defense is even close to being a household name, which means that Saleh nearly had a top-10 scoring defense with players who might not even be starters on most teams in the NFL.
Robert Saleh provides Tennessee Titans a huge defensive advantage
That is why Titans fans should be ecstatic to see what he can do in Nashville this season. What will a smarter, more experienced Saleh do with a defense front that features Jeffery Simmons, John Franklin-Myers, and Jeremaine Johnson instead of Kalia Davis and Alfred Collins?
How aggressive will this linebacker group be with Cedric Gray and Anthony Hill Jr. instead of Dee Winters and Tatum Bethune? By himself, Gray had nearly as many tackles as both of those linebackers combined.
Instead of a rotating cast of defensive backs, how opportunistic can a group of defensive backs be that includes Amani Hooker, Alontae Taylor, Cor'Dale Flott, Kevin Winston Jr., and Marcus Harris? Especially when you consider the havoc that all of the aforementioned front seven players will be wreaking on quarterbacks.
At every level, the Titans have better personnel on defense than Saleh's group did last year, and they have done a great job layering proven veteran talent with high-upside younger talent. If this team can quickly learn what Saleh wants to do on defense, then the Titans' defense could be one of the biggest surprises in the NFL from Week 1.
Add us as a preferred source on Google